Despite arrest, work continues on investigation of 2 C.R. murders

CEDAR RAPIDS - The Linn County Attorney's Office and Cedar Rapids police continue to investigate the 2014 double homicide of Quintrell Perkins and Sierrah Simmons and are asking ask for anybody with information to come forward, even though an arrest was made in their murders last week.

First Assistant Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks said most people think an investigation is wrapped up after an arrest, but that's not usually the case with more serious crimes. Investigators continue to gather evidence that's needed for a successful prosecution.

Maybanks said prosecutors and police interviewed key witnesses in order to build the case against Kendu R. Petties, 31, who was arrested in Arizona on a warrant and then extradited to Cedar Rapids. He was charged Friday with two counts of first-degree murder.

'Both agencies believe there are other individuals that possess information and eyewitness testimony that could assist in further developing the case and urge those persons to come forward,” Maybanks said.

The county attorney's office issued subpoenas in the case, placing witnesses under oath, which provides more incentive to tell the truth or face possible perjury charges, Maybanks said.

Petties is accused of firing multiple shots into a house at 1708 Fourth Ave. SE on April 2, 2014. Perkins and Simmons were found dead inside the house when police responded at 10:08 p.m. that evening.

A family friend told The Gazette that Perkins and Simmons were at the house baby-sitting Perkins' younger siblings when they were slain.

Perkins, 22, and Simmons, 20, were not the targets that night, the criminal complaint states. Petties had planned to 'shoot and kill two other subjects inside the residence,” but those people were not there. Petties fired a full, 10-round magazine of bullets into the house, as well as a single round that was in the chamber of the gun. Two of the bullets hit Perkins and Simmons, who were sitting in the living room.

Witnesses, who have not been publicly identified, verified that Petties was the shooter, and he admitted to more than one person that he fired the shots, the complaint states.

This case is similar to another case Maybanks prosecuted in 2014 concerning the Sept. 22, 2012, shooting death of Latasha Roundtree, 19. The former Washington High School basketball player wasn't the target that evening when guns were fired during a party on 16th Avenue SW, but she was the only one killed. The investigation of her death took a collaborative effort between the county attorney's office and police to develop witnesses. The work led to multiple convictions.

Petties also faces another charge of assault causing bodily injury, which was filed in October 2014, six months after the double homicide. He is accused of assaulting a woman in Marion. He was out on a $3,000 bail, but it was revoked after he did not appear for a court hearing in December 2014.

Petties remains in jail under $2 million bail.